Health Topic

How to Improve Mental Health

Your mental health affects all parts of your life. Learn how to improve your mental health through positive thinking, relaxation techniques, and gratitude.

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Also called: Boost Emotional Wellness · Improve Emotional Health · Stay Positive

Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About How to Improve Mental Health

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act as we cope with life. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and the teen years through adulthood and older age.

Good mental health can help you:

  • Cope with stress
  • Be physically healthy
  • Have good relationships
  • Make meaningful contributions to your community
  • Work productively
  • Realize your full potential

There are many ways to take care of your mental health, including:

  • Staying positive, which is the habit of seeing the good in situations and expecting things to work out well. Some ways to build a positive outlook include: Finding balance between positive and negative emotions. Staying positive doesn't mean that you never feel negative emotions, such as sadness or anger. These emotions can help you deal with problems. But you don't want those emotions to take over. For example, it's not helpful to dwell on bad memories or worry too much about the future.
  • Trying to hold on to good feelings when you have them.
  • Limiting exposure to negative information. For example, take breaks from the news or social media if they make you feel upset. Use social media to connect, not to get into arguments, or negatively compare your life to others.
  • Being physically active. Exercise reduces feelings of stress and depression and improves your mood.
  • Getting enough sleep. Sleep affects your mood. If you don't sleep well, you may become more easily annoyed and angry. Over the long term, a lack of quality sleep can make you more likely to become depressed. So, it's important to make sure that you have a regular sleep schedule and get enough quality sleep every night.
  • Healthy eating. Good nutrition may help you feel better physically, improve your mood and decrease anxiety and stress. Also, not having enough of certain nutrients may contribute to some mental illnesses. For example, there may be a link between low levels of vitamin B12 and depression. Eating a well-balanced diet can help you get enough of the nutrients you need.
  • A quiet location with as few distractions as possible.
  • A comfortable position. This could be sitting, lying down, walking, or another position.
  • A focus of attention, such as a specially chosen word or set of words, an object, or your breath.
  • An open attitude, where you try to let your thoughts come and go without judging them.
  • Progressive relaxation, where you tighten and relax different muscle groups, sometimes while using mental imagery or breathing exercises.
  • Guided imagery, where you focus on positive images in your mind to help you feel more relaxed and focused.
  • Biofeedback, where you use electronic devices to learn to control certain body functions, such as breathing, heart rate, and muscle tension.
  • Self-hypnosis, where the practice of using a specific word, image, or cue can help you enter a relaxed, focused state that shapes your thoughts and behaviors in positive ways.
  • Deep breathing exercises, which involve focusing on taking slow, deep, even breaths to calm your body and mind.

It's also important to recognize when you need to get help. Talk therapy and/or medicines can treat many mental disorders. Start by talking with your health care provider for advice on where to get care.

It sits within Mental Health and Behavior.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Mental Health.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on How to Improve Mental Health

1 study isregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Treatments and Therapies

Related Issues

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Mental Health. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for How to Improve Mental Health, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.